Ethical Dilemmas In Dr. Mckey's Case

Dr. McKey started out playing the role of the hotshot doctor. Although there were some small unethical activities going on in his OR, I didn’t notice anything majorly unethical/illegal until Dr. Mckey switch roles and became the patient. There was one unethical action that stood out to me in the beginning. Dr. Mckey wasn’t being a reasonably prudent person when his patient was uncomfortable with the size of the scar on her chest. Instead of mentioning that the scar will fade and shrink, he decided to make a remark about being a playboy bunny and having the scar to prove it. Dr. Mckey was lacking in his beneficence. He should take the time to make his patient feel comfortable and important.

I believe the biggest legitimate issue came about when a nurse gave Dr. Mckey an enema that was meant for his roommate. He couldn’t say anything because he just had a biopsy by his vocal cords and was still drowsy from anesthetics and pain medications. I would consider this a negligent tort. There was an obvious breach of duty by the nurse who was doing a procedure on the wrong patient. The nurse should have correctly identified Dr. McKey before continuing with the enema.

Mckey’s privacy and confidentiality by making the results of his biopsy known to his fellow colleagues. The movie never stated how his results got around, but my guess is word of mouth or his co-workers looked up his patient record. One of the first things we learn as students is the importance of patient confidentiality. We are told to be careful when telling stories from clinic outside of our classes. You could be in the elevator telling a story while the friend of the patient is standing right next to you. It’s so easy to break confidentiality. The hospital should have done a better job to prevent the spread of Dr. Mckey’s biopsy results. What if he didn’t want people to